SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – While most will focus on Mindframe in Sunday’s Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, trainer Todd Pletcher said it would be a mistake to overlook his other entrant in the race, Antiquarian.
Mindframe is 3 for 3 this year and coming off two Grade 1 victories. He will likely vie for favoritism in the Gold Cup with Sierra Leone, who finished second to Mindframe in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster on June 28 before winning the Grade 1 Whitney on Aug. 2.
Antiquarian, who got beat a head by Phileas Fogg in the Grade 2 Suburban, will likely be a longshot in a field of nine that also includes Phileas Fogg, White Abarrio, Highland Falls, Disarm, Banishing, and Contrary Thinking.
Antiquarian is a son Preservationist, who won this race as a 6-year-old in 2019. Antiquarian is 4, but as was the case with his father, he seems to be getting better as he’s gotten older and with the chance to run longer distances.
“He’s run a couple of big races, I wouldn’t overlook him,” Pletcher said. “The horse is training well, he’s bred to get better as he gets older. He’s been training like he’s sitting on a good performance.”
Antiquarian won the Grade 3 Peter Pan at 3 before finishing fifth behind Dornoch in the Belmont Stakes – a race in which Mindframe finished second. Pletcher said Antiquarian was in need of time off after the Belmont, so he gave him the remainder of the year off. Antiquarian won a seven-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream Park in April before finishing second to 2024 Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan in the Grade 3 Blame, a race in which Antiquarian made the lead, but ultimately lost by 1 1/4 lengths.
“Johnny [Velazquez] said he saw the gate on the turf course and shied away from it and lost his momentum a little bit,” Pletcher said.
In the Suburban, Antiquarian chased and was gaining late on pacesetting Phileas Fogg, but he fell a head short.
“When he ran here in the Suburban it was a little bit of a tricky track, it was definitely a different track than what we’re running on now,” Pletcher said. “He got rolling a little too late, one jump too late.”
Velazquez is named to ride Antiquarian again in the Gold Cup, a race that awards its winner a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Though Banishing was entered, he is not definite to run, according to trainer and part-owner David Jacobson. The horse won last Friday night’s Grade 2, $1 million Charles Town Classic. He is in Saratoga, and Jacobson will give it a few days before he decides whether or not to run.
“I’m up in the air,” said Jacobson, who named Jose Lezcano to ride.
With an opportunity to be shown on national Fox, the Jockey Club Gold Cup was to be carded early on a 14-race card that was to begin at 11:20 a.m. Post time for the Gold Cup was to be approximately 1:45 p.m.
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